This invention relates to communication systems, including but not limited to consoles for use in radio frequency (RF) communication systems.
The basic operation and structure of a land mobile radio system is well known. Land mobile radio systems typically comprise one or more radio communication units (e.g., vehicle-mounted mobiles, portable radios, or dispatch consoles in a land mobile system and radio/telephones in a cellular system) and one or more repeaters that transceive information via RF communication resources. These communication resources, which may be used as voice and/or data resources, may be narrow band frequency modulated channels, time division multiplex slots, carrier frequencies, frequency pairs, spreading patterns, wireline telephone lines, and so forth. Land mobile radio systems may be organized as trunked communication systems, where a plurality of communication resources is allocated amongst a group of users by assigning the repeaters on a communication-by-communication basis with an RF coverage area. Land mobile radio systems may be organized as conventional (or non-trunked) radio systems, where communication resources are dedicated to one or more groups of users.
Dispatch consoles, also referred to as consoles, may be part of an RF communication system and are connected to the other fixed portions of the system (i.e., the infrastructure) via wire connections. Dispatch consoles may each control a multiplicity of communications resources or talkgroups and may communicate on these communications resources singly or simultaneously. In some communication systems, dispatch consoles process radio events, such as emergency alarms, change requests, and status events, that are sent by radio users. In order to insure that events are not lost in the system, each event may be displayed on several dispatch consoles. In this manner, several dispatchers are made aware of the event, such that the first available dispatcher will be able to handle the event. Nevertheless, displaying an event to several dispatchers may cause confusion with respect to who should handle the event, as well as later in the life cycle of the event when attempting to analyze what happened in the resolution of the event by the dispatcher.
Accordingly, there is a need for a console that provides dispatchers with the ability to easily manage events while properly communicating with other dispatchers with respect to the handling of an event.